‘Sounion’ on the Brink of a Disaster: Houthis Deepen the Environmental Wounds in the Red Sea

On August 21, 2024, the Greek-flagged tanker ’Sounion‘ was attacked by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in the Red Sea off the coast of Hodeidah. The ‘United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations’ (UKMTO) agency in an advisory posted on that day said that two small boats – one with around five men and the other with 10 men on board -- approached the tanker. “The two small craft hailed the merchant vessel, leading to a brief exchange of small arms fire”, following which the distance between the tanker and the two boats increased. However, the captain soon reported that the merchant vessel had been struck by two “unidentified projectiles” and reported a further attack by “another projectile”. This led to a fire onboard and the ship lost engine power, and began drifting. Another small craft was noticed in the vicinity “acting suspiciously”. The crew was evacuated. Later, three fires were spotted on board the vessel, UKMTO said.

On August 29, the Houthis announced that they had rigged and bombed the ’Sounion’ setting off several fires onboard.  Leader of the Houthi militia, Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, said in a speech that his group carried out a qualitative and important operation by storming the ’Sounion‘, destroying all its cargo, and targeting the ship itself by rigging and bombing it.

Al-Houthi revealed that two Houthi teams boarded the ‘Sounion’ in two stages and operations. During these “operations”, the “cargo the ship was carrying for the enemy was destroyed”, and the vessel was rigged with explosives. Al-Houthi described the operation as "brave and courageous”. The tanker was targeted as its owner had “violated the embargo decision” of not having dealings with Israel.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the attack involved war boats, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. 

On their affiliated media platforms, the Houthis released a video showing masked fighters boarding the ’Sounion‘ and placing explosives on the holds that lead to the oil tanks. The footage then showed at least six simultaneous explosions.

#BREAKING

Yemen's #Houthis released footage showing their members storming, burning and blowing up the "Sounion" oil tanker in the Red Sea#south24 pic.twitter.com/0KMfBBH8v6

— South24 | English (@South24E) August 29, 2024

According to shipping news outlets, the ‘Sounion’, which is operated by the Greek shipping company Delta Tankers, was heading from Iraq to Greece, with a crew of 25, including two Russians and 23 Filipinos. The US Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary said on August 29 that there were multiple fires on board the ship and it was leaking some oil from where it was hit. She said the fires could not be put out as the Houthis were threatening to attack any type of salvage recovery mission. She said if the fires get to the oil barrels then it will leak one million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea “destroying major ecological systems and creating an environmental catastrophe”. The ‘Sounion currently constitutes a navigation threat to other ships passing through the area.

On August 29, ’EUNAFOR ASPIDES’, an EU military operation in response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, said on ’X‘: “The MV Sounion has been on fire since August 23rd. Multiple fires have been detected in several locations on the main deck of the vessel. There’s no oil spill, and the ship is still anchored and not drifting… EUNAVFOR ASPIDES is preparing to facilitate any courses of action, in coordination with European authorities and neighboring countries, to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis, thereby contributing to the protection of global goods.”

The ‘Sounion’ is laden with 150,000 tons of crude oil, or more than one million barrels, which threatens an unprecedented environmental disaster if it spills into the sea. The cargo is four times the size of the American ship Exxon Valdez, which ran aground on a coral reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989, constituting one of the largest oil spill incidents in history.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill largely affected marine life in the region as vast water and coastal areas were contaminated, leading to the death of large numbers of fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. The disaster also destroyed the fragile natural environment and caused huge economic losses to local industries such as fishing and tourism.

The US State Department in a statement on August 24 recalled this disaster, and condemned the Houthi attack on the ’Sounion‘, warning of a similar environmental disaster. It said the “Houthis appear determined to sink the ship and its cargo into the sea” and called on the Iran-backed militia to “cease these actions immediately” and urged “other nations to step forward to help avert this environmental disaster”.

In a message through the UN shipping agency on August 30, Greece said that a "potential spill of 2.2 nautical miles (4.2 km) in length had been detected in the area matching the location of the Sounion in the Red Sea”.

However, ’Reuters‘ cited an official with the European Union's ASPIDES naval monitoring mission as saying that “the potential spill was from the vessel’s engine and not from the oil cargo onboard”.

Abdulsalam Mohammed Al-Jaabi, Deputy Head of the Yemeni Environmental Protection Authority, told ‘South24 Center’: “The ship’s cargo comprises 150,000 tons of crude oil and is located 77 nautical miles away from the Port of Hodeidah.”

Commenting on the environmental hazard in case the ship sinks, the Yemeni official said: “This will create an environmental, economic, and humanitarian disaster at the regional and international levels as the cargo of crude oil will leak out. This will pollute the Red Sea and the beaches in the region, especially in Yemen, including Hodeidah governorate.”

He added: “In addition to affecting the beaches of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, the oil spill will extend to the Saudi and Sudanese coasts, moved along with the wind.”

Al-Jaabi also warned that the oil spill will cause “the unique environmental systems in the Red Sea to collapse and the coral reefs will be almost completely destroyed. This will lead to the death of many kinds of fish while some fishes will migrate due to the deterioration of their environment and habitats.”

According to him, microorganisms, crustaceans, marine mammals, and resident and migratory seabirds will also be at risk, adding that “this will lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of job opportunities for fishermen. This will turn the coastal community, comprising more than one million people, into an idle one.”

He continued: “The economic conditions will exacerbate due to the unfair war launched by the Houthi militia, who from being a ground militia have now morphed into pirates in the Red Sea. Loss of economic opportunities will lead to the deterioration of tourism in the coastal areas and the collapse of the seawater desalination plants along the Red Sea’s coastal strip. Thus, there will be no drinking water on which people in these areas rely.”

“The Red Sea is considered a semi-enclosed one. Renewing its water naturally needs dozens of years. This means that the impact of the environmental disaster may last for about 100 years, even with the counter-pollution efforts,” he added. 

In case of its sinking, the ‘Sounion’ will face the same fate as the British vessel ’Rubymar‘ that was hit by Houthi missiles on February 18. The Yemeni government officially declared its sinking on March 2 this year along with its cargo of more than 41,000 tons of IMDG 5.1 high-hazard fertilizers (International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code) as well as quantities of oil and fuel.

On August 28, Houthi Spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, wrote on ‘X’: “After several international bodies contacted us, especially European ones, they were allowed to tow away the burning ship ’Sounion’.

Greece urged "all nations and actors involved to assist in preventing the environmental hazard and resolving the situation as soon as possible" in its letter dated August 29 and published the following day by the UN International Maritime Organization.

In a tweet on ‘X’ on Saturday August 31, Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer wrote: “Tugboats will reach the tanker and retrieve it on Sunday”. However, NASA satellites revealed on Monday (September 2) fires still burning in the location of Sounion, according to France 24.

On August 30, Reuters cited sources as saying that “a salvage operation to recover the Greek-registered oil tanker stranded ablaze in the Red Sea after an attack by Houthi militants is expected to start in the coming days”.

Reuters quoted two sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that "what was decided on Thursday is an initial game plan, of the operation starting in 48 hours”.

A second source said the operation was likely to be complex, given that the Houthis have planted explosives on board.

On August 30, during an informal meeting of EU Defense Ministers, the EU High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said: “Now, the big issue is to avoid an environmental catastrophe with the oil that the ship Sounion was transporting. A solution will be found, and we will cooperate on that.”

On Monday, September 2, EUNAVFOR ASPIDES said: “The MV Sounion, due to the large amount of crude oil it carries, presents a significant environmental threat. Private companies are involved in the salvage operation that is about to start. Upon their request, EUNAVFOR ASPIDES will provide protection to the tugboats that will deal with the salvage operation and facilitate their efforts to prevent an environmental disaster.”

 

The statement added: “Currently, several fires continue to burn on the vessel’s main deck. The vessel remains anchored without drifting, and there are no visible signs of an oil spill.”

On whether the ‘Sounion’ will meet the same fate as ’Rubymar‘, Al-Jaabi said: “Based on data and the size of the possible disaster, I don’t think that it will face the same fate.”

He explained: "The government is in contact with brothers in the Arab countries bordering the Red Sea and regional states to put in place solutions and treatments in order to retrieve the ship before it runs aground and avoid an oil spill.”

“The current situation of the oil tanker shows that there are five fires still burning on its deck. However, the vessel is still cohesive and stable in its position. I think this will have a positive impact on rescuing it as soon as possible. We hope that God will spare us this imminent disaster,” Al-Jaabi said.

However, efforts to rescue the Sounion will be hindered if the Houthis exploit this file, as they did with the ‘Safer’ oil storage vessel (1.14 million barrels) which remained floating as a time bomb off Hodeidah in the Red Sea for about nine years (2015-August 2023).

The UN managed to empty the oil tanks on board the dilapidated tanker ’Safer‘ and transferred the oil to another ship through a complicated operation that lasted 18 days, amid strong sea currents and sea minefields planted by the Houthis.

The operation cost $143 million, covered by international donations. However, this is nothing in comparison to the $20 billion that would have been required for cleaning the Red Sea if the ’Safer‘ had sunk along with its cargo. It is remarkable that the weight of the ‘Safer’s cargo is very similar to that of the ‘Sounion’. Nonetheless, the challenge of providing similar funding to avoid the ‘Sounion’ disaster is apparently an additional obstacle. 

Moreover, the continuation of Houthi attacks against ships poses dangerous circumstances that may thwart the whole rescue operation. On Monday (September 2) alone, the Houthis attacked two ships in the Red Sea near the ’Sounion’.